Thermostatic valve



y 13, 1958 P. J. OLSEN ET AL 2,834,548

- THERMOSTATIC VALVE Filed Feb. 4, 1957 fHJ EHZUFE Pal/L OLSEN 6 50805 1/. SAFAA/VEK THERMOSTATIC VALVE Application February 4, 1957, Serial No. 638,012

' 7 Claims. (c1. 236--34) This invention relates to improvements in thermostatic valves for internal combustion engine cooling systems.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a simple and compact form of thermostatic valve arranged with the view towards utmost simplicity and ease of assembly and disassembly.

A further object of the invention is to provide a thermostatic coolant control valve in which the securing means for the parts of the valve are formed integrally with the valve parts.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a thermostatic valve of the poppet type in which the sole means for retaining the valve to its body is the return spring for the thermal element for opening the valve.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a selfseating thermostatic valve tiltably carried on the end of the power member of the thermal element for opening the valve, and maintained in engagement therewith by the return spring for the thermal element.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved form of thermostatic valve controlling the temperature of the coolant of an internal combustion engine, having a yoke extending from the valve, forming a seat for the biasing spring for the valve in which the means for securing the yoke to the valve is in the form of an integral rivet sealing the yoke to the valve and forming a socket for engagement with the piston of the thermal element for operating the valve.

These and other objects of the invention will appear from time to time as the following specification proceeds and with reference to the accompanying drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a thermostatic valve constructed in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the valve taken substantially along line IIlI of Figure 1, and showing the valve in a fully closed position;

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially anong line III-III of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along line IV-IV of Figure 2 and illustrating the connecting means for the thermal element to the valve housing.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawing, I have shown a thermostatically operated valve having a housing 11 generally cylindrical in form having an outturned flange 12 at the downstream end thereof. The junction between the flange 12 and the interior cylindrical wall of the housing 10 forms a seat for -a valve 13, herein shown as being a poppet type of valve pressed or otherwise formed from a metal disk, and having a frustoconical valve face 15 engageable with the seat formed by the inner wall of the valve housing, for blocking the passage of coolant through the housing.

The valve housing 11 is shown as having parallel spaced legs 16 forming a continuation of the wall theretates Patent 9 ice ' 2 of in a downstream direction and having inturned end portions 17 extending at right angles with respect thereto havinga bridge 19 extending thereacross and forming a support for a thermal element 21.

The bridge 19 is shown as having tangs 22 punched integrally therefrom and extending at right angles with respect thereto through aperturned portions in the inwardly extending end portions 17 of the legs 16, and staked to said inwardly extending portions 17, for rigidly mounting said bridge thereon.

The thermal element 21 is of the so-called power or solid fill type of thermal element having a casing 24 containing a fusible thermally expansible material, a cylinder 25 extending from said casing and a clamping ring 26 clamping said cylinder to said casing. The thermally expansible material reacts against a flexible membrane (not shown) at the upper end of the casing 24 for extending a power member or a piston 27 from the cylinder 25 upon fusion of the fusible thermally expansible material contained within the casing 24 at the operating range of the thermal element, as shown and described in the Vernet Patent No. 2,368,181 dated January 30, 1945.

The cylinder 25 has a shoulder 29 abutting the underside of the bridge 19 and has a reduced diameter portion 30 extending through said bridge and terminating in a shoulder 31 defining the inner or lower margin of a reduceddiameter outer end portion 33 of the cylinder 25. The'shoulder 29 is maintained in abutting engagement with the underside of the bridge 19 by stakes 35' formed from the shoulder 31 and pressed inwardly into engagement with the top surface of the bridge 19.

The housing 11, bridge 19 and thermal element 24 are thus formed as an integral unit, the legs 16 and bridge 19 spacing the outer end portion 33 of the thermal ele ment sufiiciently far from the valve seat and cylindrical wall portion of the housing to' provide a substantially uninterrupted flow passage through the housing from the upstream end thereof.

The valve 13 is biased into engagement with its seat at the outer end portion of the wall of the housing 11 and is retained to said housing solely by a biasing spring 36, which also forms a return spring for the power member or piston 27 of the thermal element 21.

As herein shown, the spring 36 is seated at one end on the opposite side of the bridge 19 from the valve 13, and is seated at its opposite end in channel-like recesses 37 formed by the inwardly and upwardly turned ends of spaced legs 39 of a yoke 40. The yoke 40 is herein shown as including a cross-piece 41 from which the legs 39 extend and having a hollow rivet portion pressed from the center of said cross-piece and extending through a central aperture in the valve 13, with a relatively close fit with respect to said aperture, and the pressed or riveted downwardly onto the outer face of the valve 13, to rigidly secure said yoke to said valve andprovide a leak-proof connection therebetween. The underside of the rivet portion 43, from which the rivet is formed, forms a socket 45 loosely receiving the end of the piston 27 of the thermal element 21 and forming a seat therefor.

The legs 39 of the yoke 40 are resilient, and in assembling the valve the legs are passed through the housing from the downstream side thereof along opposite sides of the bridge 19 until the valve is seated on its seat at the outer or downstream end of the housing, and the piston 27 is seated within the socket 45. The legs 39 may then be flexed outwardly to position the spring around the thermal element into engagement with the underside of the bridge 19 at one end. The spring .36 may then be compressed and the legs 39 flexed inwardly to seat the opposite end of the spring 36 from the 3 bridge 19, in the channel-like recesses 37 formed on the ends of the legs 39.

It may be seen from the foregoing that the valve and its yoke is one integral element, that the housing and thermal element is another integral element, and that the valve may be assembled in an extremely simple manner by merely placing the valve on its seat at the end of the housing and retaining the valve to the housing by compressing the spring 36 and seating the spring in the ends of the legs of the yoke extending from and forming a part of the valve.

The biasing spring 36 thus forms the sole means for retaining the valve to its housing and to the power member of the thermal element, and is so spaced in an upstream direction with respect to the cylindrical wall portion of the valve housing as to be out of the path of the flow of coolant therethrough.

It may further be seen that all of the connecting means for connecting the parts of the valve together are integrally formed parts, and that the parts are retained with respect to each other by a series of simple staking and riveting operations.

It may also be seen that an integral rivet formed integrally with the cross-member or bridge of the yoke affords the means for riveting the yoke to the valve and also forms a socket receiving the end of the piston 27 of the thermal element sufiiciently loosely to accommodate a limited tilting of the valve with respect to said piston, and thus enabling the valve to be self-seating particularly where dirt may lodge on the seat thereof during closing of the valve.

It will be understood that modifications and variations in the present invention may be eifected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts thereof.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a thermostatic valve, a valve housing having a seat at one end thereof, a bridge extending across said housing and spaced upstream from said seat, a thermal element having a cylinder carried by said bridge and having a piston extensible from said cylinder toward said seat upon certain predetermined increases in temperature, a valve engageable with said seat and loosely mounted on said piston, means for mounting said valve on said piston and biasing said valve into engagement with said seat and retractibly moving said piston upon reductions in temperature comprising a yoke extending across the upstream face of said valve and secured thereto and having spaced legs extending along said thermal element, and a spring interposed between said bridge and the free ends of said legs.

2. In thermostatic valve, 21 valve housing having a valve seat at one end thereof, a bridge extending across said valve housing and spaced downstream from said seat, a thermal element having a cylinder carried by said bridge and having a piston extending along said housing toward said seat, a valve engageable With said seat, a yoke having a cross-member secured to said valve, having a socket formed therein forming a seat for the end of said piston and having legs extending therefrom along opposite sides of said thermal element, a spring retaining said valve to said housing and biasing said valve into engagement with said seat and returning said piston upon predetermined reductions in temperature, said spring being seated on said bridge at one end, and said legs having inturned free end portions forming channel-like seats having the opposite end of said spring seated therein and maintaining said valve in connected relation with respect to said housing and piston.

3. In a thermostatic valve, a valve housing having a valve seat at one end thereof, a bridge extending across said valve housing and spaced upstream from said seat, a thermal element having a cylinder carried by said bridge and a piston extending within said housing toward said seat, a valve engageable with said seat, a yoke secured to said valve and having generally parallel legs extending therefrom along opposite sides of said thermal element, a spring interposed between the free ends of said legs and said bridge and forming the sole means for connecting said valve to said housing, the means for securing said valve to said yoke comprising rivet means extending through said valve and riveted thereto, and the undersurface of said rivet means forming a socket loosely seating said valve on said piston.

4. In a thermostatic valve, a valve housing having a valve seat at one end thereof, a bridge extending across said housing and spaced upstream from said seat, a valve engageable with said seat, a thermal element having a cylinder carried by said bridge and having a piston extending therefrom along said housing in juxtaposition to said seat, a yoke having a cross-member having a rivet portion formed integrally therewith, riveting said valve to said yoke in leak-proof relation with respect thereto, said yoke having generally parallel legs extending from said cross member along opposite sides of said thermal element, a spring seated between said legs and said bridge and connecting said valve to said housing and biasing said valve in a closed position, and said rivet portion forming a socket on the undersurface of said valve forming a loose seat for the end of said piston, accommodating tilting movement of said valve with respect thereto during valve closing movement and thereby enabling the valve to be self-seating.

5. In a thermostatic valve, a generally cylindrical valve housing having a valve seat on the downstream end thereof, spaced legs extending from the Wall of said housing in an upstream direction, a bridge mounted on the end of said legs in spaced relation with respect to the wall of said housing, a thermal element having a cylinder extending through said bridge and secured thereto and having a piston extensible therefrom upon predetermined increases in temperature, and extending axially of said housing into juxtaposition with said seat in the retracted position of said piston, a valve engageable with said seat, a yoke secured to said valve and integrally riveted thereto and having a socket on the underside of said valve forming a loose seat for the end of said piston, said yoke having legs extending from said valve along opposite sides of said bridge and thermal element, and a return spring for said piston and biasing spring for said valve, seated on said bridge at one end and on said legs at its opposite end, and serving as the sole means for retaining said valve to said housing.-

6. In a thermostatic valve, a generally cylindrical valve housing having a valve seat on one end thereof and having parallel spaced legs extending from the opposite end thereof, said legs having inturned ends, a bridge engageable with the inturned ends of said legs and staked thereto, a thermal element having a cylinder carried by said bridge and extending therethrough, means staking said cylinder to said bridge, a valve engageable With said seat having a yoke secured thereto and extending therefrom, said valve and yoke forming a valve unit separate from said housing and thermal element, and means biasing said valve into engagement with said seat and rettu'ning said piston Within said cylinder upon predetermined reductions in temperature, comprising a spring seated on said bridge at one end and on the end of said yoke at its opposite end.

7. In a thermostatic valve, a generally cylindrical valve housing having a valve seat on one end thereof and having parallel spaced legs extending from the opposite end thereof, said legs having inturned ends, a bridge engageable With the inturned ends of said legs and staked thereto, a thermal element having a cylinder carried by said bridge and extending therethrough, means staking said'cylinder to said bridge, a valve engageable with said seat having a yoke secured thereto and extending therefrom, said valve 5 6 and yoke forming a valve unit separate from said housing valve and riveted thereto and having a socket formed by and thermal element, means biasing said valve into engagethe undersurface of said rivet, forming a seat for the end ment with said seat and returning said piston with reof said piston. spect to said cylinder upon predetermined reductions in temperature comprising a spring seated on said bridge at 5 References Cited in the file of this patent one end and seated on the ends of the legs of said yoke at its opposite end, and the means for securing said UNITED STATES PATENTS yoke to said valve comprising a rivet portion formed 2,174,042 Rose Sept. 26, 1939 integrally with said yoke and extending through said 

